Google launches desktop search

(October 14 2004) Google has launched a beta desktop search tool that lets you search your email folders, local files, web history files, and chats.

Hence the company is following in the footsteps of others, launching what Pandia has called a "total search" application, software that lets computer users search their own computer as well as the web using the same tool.

Google Desktop Search supports programs like Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express. It will index files in Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, as well as plain text files. It will also include your website history in Internet Explorer and instant message chats in AOL Instant Messenger. The local Google database will be updated continuously.

Google's own online mail service, GMail, is not included in the file types and programs supported by Google Desktop Search, apparently because of its use of JavaScript. This will be fixed in a later version of the desktop tool. It should also be noted that the tool will only index files on the C-drive at the moment.

Google notes that when users search through Google.com (either from the homepage or the Google Toolbar), Google Desktop Search runs the same search in parallel on the user's computer: "If Google Desktop Search finds relevant results, those results are added to the Google.com search results page," Google adds in a press release.

If you do a regular search using Google, the search engine result page will also include a link to results stored on your computer. Clicking on that link will bring up a list of local files with a relevant excerpt of the content of that file, in the same way as Google presents regular web pages.

Alternatively you may click on the Google Desktop Search logo in your Windows task bar. This will bring up a browser window with a special search page. If you do a search using the search form at this page, Google will first list results from your own computer.

Another useful feature is Google Desktop Search's cashing feature. The tool will make a local copy of any webpage or any file you look at and store it locally on your computer. This is the version of the file the desktop tool keeps in its database. You may use this file to review older versions of pages and files, or to look at files in the browser window without opening the relevant program.

Given that this is a beta version, users will probably find faults and weaknesses. Still, the tool is very impressive, and is bound to strengthen Google's hold on Internet searchers.

There is one aspect alone that will make Windows users stop using Windows' own search tools: speed. The list of files appears in a second. Moreover, it is much easier to use -- as easy as using the regular Google search in fact.

Requirements: Windows XP and Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 and above,a minimum of 128MB of RAM, and a 400MHz (or faster) Pentium processor. Google Desktop Search is only available in English at the moment.

Google Desktop Search home page with download.

More search engine news...